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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 120 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  7. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. kid — to tease
  3. pop — to visit
  4. degree — temperature
  5. mate — a partner
  6. mate — a friend
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. degree — from a university
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. pop — music
  11. pop — soda
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. hand — in cards
  14. file — a line of people
  15. spell — letters
  16. degree — an amount
  17. kid — child
  18. file — a tool
  19. mate — to breed
  20. spell — magic
  21. spell — a short time
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. hide — animal skin
  24. file — a document

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com